The present invention relates to a refrigerator including three or more storage chambers arranged vertically.
A recent refrigerator is provided with storage chambers controlled at respective temperatures in accordance with kinds of foods stored therein. A conventional refrigerator mainly is provided with a freezing chamber at its top, a refrigerating chamber in its middle, and a vegetable chamber at its bottom. Recently, with priority given to being easy to use, a refrigerator provided with a refrigerating chamber at the top, and a freezing chamber and a vegetable chamber at the middle and center have been proposed and widely used. And, due to a recent health boom, a refrigerator is provided with a vegetable chamber in the middle for conveniently handling vegetables best.
A conventional refrigerator with a vegetable chamber arranged in its middle is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open No.8-338681.
FIG. 12 is a sectional view of the conventional refrigerator. Refrigerator body 1 is vertically partitioned by insulating partition wall 2, and is provided with refrigerating chamber 3 and vegetable chamber 4 for storing vegetables and fruits at the top, and freezing chambers 5 and 6 at the bottom. Hinged door 7 is disposed at the front opening portion of the refrigerating chamber 3. Drawer door 8 is fitted to the front opening portion of the vegetable chamber. Drawer doors 9 and 10 fits to respective opening portions of the freezing chambers 5 and 6. Storage container 11 is drawn out along with the drawer door of the vegetable chamber, and upper storage container 12 is disposed at the top rear of the storage container 11. Storage containers 13 and 14 are drawn out along with the drawer door of the refrigerating chamber. In the vegetable chamber 4 closed with the drawer door 8, lid 16 provided with wet member 15 covers the upper opening portion of the storage containers 11 and 12 to keep them nearly closed and forms cool air convection passage 17 at the outer periphery of the storage containers 11, 12 and lid 16. At the lowest stage of door pocket 18 at the interior side of the hinged door 7 of the refrigerating chamber, bottle rack 19 is provided for storing PET bottles or cartons of milk. Low temperature chamber 20 is disposed at the bottom of the refrigerating chamber 3, where meat and fish are stored at a temperature lower than that of the refrigerating chamber. Fan 22 for forced draft is provided at the back of the vegetable chamber 4, that is, above cooler 21 for freezing cycle. Air passage control panel 23 disposed at the back of the vegetable chamber 4 and low temperature chamber 20 is provided internally with damper 24 for adjusting the amount of the cool air supplied to the refrigerating chamber 3, vegetable chamber 4, and low temperature chamber 20. The cooler 21 and the fan 22 are vertically arranged above compressor 25 disposed at the outside bottom rear of the refrigerator main body 1. Height h from a floor, where the refrigerator main body 1 is installed, to the upper end of the drawer door 8 of the vegetable chamber satisfies 850 mmxe2x89xa6hxe2x89xa61000 mm.
In this refrigerator, the air cooled by the cooler 21 is directly introduced by the fan 22 into the refrigerating chambers 5 and 6, and directly introduced into the refrigerating chamber 3, vegetable chamber 4, and low temperature chamber 20 via a cool-air-amount-adjusting operation of the damper 24. Accordingly, the air cooled by the cooler 21 is forced under convection in each chamber, and is then directly cooling and maintaining the inside of each chamber at a predetermined temperature. The cool air is forced under convection in the interior of the vegetable chamber 4 as well, but the air circulates in the convection passage 17 and indirectly cools the contents of the container from the outer periphery of the storage containers 11, 12, and the lid 16.
Since the height h satisfies 850 mmxe2x89xa6hxe2x89xa61000 mm, a user can smoothly move the food without raising his/her elbow within a height of a table (850 mm) of a sink often adjoining the refrigerator main body 1 to the standard height 970 mm of the elbow of the user.
In the conventional refrigerator described above, since the air cooled by the cooler 21 is forced under convection in each refrigerating chamber by a circulating operation of the fan 22, the refrigerator is not suitable for storing foods, such as vegetables and fruits, meat, and fish, to be prevented from promotion of drying or oxidation when directly exposed to the cool air.
The contents of the vegetable chamber 4 are indirectly cooled without introducing the cool air directly into the storage containers 11 and 12. But the convection passage 17 formed at the periphery of the storage containers 11, 12, and the lid 16 is necessary to have a capacity enough to assure a specified cooling power, thus causing the substantial storing capacity of the refrigerator to be reduced much. Further, the total distance of the air circulating passage of the fan 22 becomes longer, thus requiring a larger-sized fan. This increases a power consumption and noise, and making its cooling power for the vegetable chamber 4, which is cooled at last, be insufficient due to a large passage resistance and passage heat absorption.
Since the cooler 21 and the fan 22 are arranged above the compressor 25, the vegetable chamber 4 is shortened, and sizes of the storage containers 11 and 12 are restricted. This arrangement makes the capacity insufficient for storing vegetables and fruits, which are recently consumed more.
Further, the position at which the stored bottles are held in the bottle rack 19 is about 150 mm high from the lower end of the hinged door 7. And the lower end of the door 7 is about 15 mm high from the upper end of the drawer door 8 of the vegetable chamber. Since the height h from the floor to the upper end of the door 8 satisfies 850 mmxe2x89xa6hxe2x89xa61000 mm, the user reaches the bottles at a height of about h+165 mm, that is, 1015 mmxe2x89xa6(h+165 mm)xe2x89xa61165 mm. Accordingly, the position at which heavy PET bottles or cartons of milk are handled is higher than 970 mm, the height of the elbow of the user, and this causes a burden on the user.
A refrigerator is enhanced in volume efficiency and cooling efficiency, and provides storing environment for suppressing drying and oxidation of foods stored therein. The refrigerator assures a sufficient storing capacity of a vegetable chamber since its length is not restricted. Further, the refrigerator is improved in easy-to-use of, particularly, a bottle rack at a door pocket of a refrigerating chamber.
The refrigerator is internally partitioned to have three or more storage chambers vertically arranged. At least one of the storage chambers is an indirect cooling chamber having an exterior cooled without introducing cool air into the chamber, and other chambers are direct cooling chambers into which the cool air is introduced for cooling. Due to this multiple chamber configuration in a vertical direction, an installation space for the refrigerator is reduced. The refrigerator is under divisional storage control properly executed since foods to be prevented from drying and oxidation are stored in the indirect cooling chamber, while foods to be rapidly cooled are stored in the direct cooling chamber.